Domestic partners get same property tax break as surviving spouses

STATE SUPREME COURT Court rejects appeal, granting same rights as married couples

Domestic partners in California won the right to the same property tax breaks as husbands and wives under state law Thursday when the state Supreme Court turned down an appeal by county assessors.

The justices left intact an October ruling by an appeals court in Sacramento that allowed registered domestic partners - same-sex couples, or unmarried heterosexual couples in which one partner is at least 62 - to accept or inherit real estate from one another without new tax assessments.

That's a significant advantage under Proposition 13, the 1978 initiative that rolled back property taxes to 1 percent of value and limited increases to 2 percent a year. Prop. 13 allowed counties to reassess property to full market value when it was sold or changed ownership, often leading to a substantial tax increase.

The initiative did not define changes in ownership. A 1979 law and subsequent ballot measure specified that transfers of property between husbands and wives at death or divorce, and transfers to children or grandchildren, would not be considered ownership changes and were therefore protected from tax increases.

Domestic partners were granted the same rights under state Board of Equalization rules in 2003 and by a state law in 2005. Several county assessors challenged the tax break in court, arguing that the definition of change of ownership had become part of the California Constitution under Prop. 13 and later ballot measures and couldn't be expanded by the state board or the Legislature.

The Third District Court of Appeal in Sacramento disagreed in October, saying neither Prop. 13 nor subsequent measures barred lawmakers from granting additional exemptions to changes in ownership.

The court noted the Legislature's declaration that the 2005 law was part of an effort to promote equality for all Californians, regardless of sexual orientation.

The state's high court denied review of the case Thursday without comment or any dissenting votes.

Geoff Kors, executive director of the gay-rights group Equality California, praised the court's action. "A surviving domestic partner should not lose the family home because he or she must pay taxes that a surviving married spouse does not," he said.